About

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Paris 2014 - Day 1 - Shopping

This year, Ami and me travelled again to Paris for 3 days <3 We were there especially for the Angelic Pretty Tea Party, but of course we also went shopping and visited a museum!

~*~ ANGELIC PRETTY ~*~

On Tuesday we arrived at 12h in Paris. This was exactly the time when the Angelic Pretty Pop-up Store opened his doors for the first day, but we had to drop off our luggage at our hotel before we go to the shop, so we only arrived around 13-13:30h. In front of the shop was a queue so we had to wait for around 20 minutes until we could get in. In this time we looked through the window and we could see all the pretty stuff they had! I don't know why but I became very nervous during the waiting time, because I had fear that an awesome item get sold-out before I could enter the store. And it happend ;_; They had a Lucky Pack for 33€ (!!!) with a chocolate-print cardigan, 2 pairs of socks and 3 accessoires. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT ;______; When we waited outside they still had the Lucky Packs, we could see them through the window. But when we entered they were sold-out ;_;

Pic is from the AP website because it wasn't allowed to photograph inside

I was also nervous because a friend of mine wanted blue Crystal Dream Carnival wrist cuffs and the last pair was directly in front of us at the window, so I looked all the time at it and hoped that nobody will buy it. YES, THEY HAD CRYSTAL DREAM CARNIVAL!!! They had the dark blue Crystal Dream Carnival OP and JSK's, and also all other colors and all matching accessoires for Crystal Dream Carnival. I was really surprised that they reserved a stock especially for Paris, since all the dark blue dresses were sold-out within minutes in Japan.

And in addition to that, they also had many other new prints and items. I'm really happy that Angelic Pretty took all the effort to bring some items for their fans overseas. After they closed their international website I was pretty angry, because this was a sign for me that they don't care so much about their foreign customers. But now after I saw this shop, I have a better image of them again :)

The only negative points of the shop were, that the prices were expensive and that they didn't had much stock. For example the Crystal Dream Carnival Chiffon JSK cost 33.264Yen and they sold it for 328€ (actual exchange rate would be around 240€). And we came back to the store on Tuesday evening (and also on Wednesday and Thursday xD), and the stock was already really shrinked. Nearly all the "cool stuff" was gone.

Btw, Maki and Asuka were also at the store. Like always, Maki welcomed all customers, gave nice compliments for outfits, asked for pictures and gave autographes, while Asuka tidied up the shop with her "grumpy" face. (Can someone tell me why she always looks kinda annoyed and grumpy and not happy at all???) It was so cute when we asked Maki and Asuka for an autograph. Maki signed our postcard and wanted to give the pen to Asuka, but she went outside to take pictures. So Maki told us to wait a second and went to Asuka to tell her that we want an autograph from her. It was sooo adorable how engaged they were to make all customers happy <3 After this, they also asked us to take a picture with them outside! Awww <3

I'm holding a signed postcard from Maki and Asuka

I bought a pair of pink
Crystal Dream Carnival socks (for my Day Dream Carnival OP xD) and ALL
the postcards. Literally. They sold two postcards for 3€, so I grabbed
all they had because usually if you look for them 2nd hand, people sell this shit for 5-7€ per postcard
!! I mean you get them for free in Japan but whatever, 1,50€ is better
then 7€ and I always wanted to have them. Btw they also sold the new
summer catalogue for 9€ which you also get for free in Japan but
whatever. (But I guess they had to sell this stuff too to cover their costs)

~*~ PUTUMAYO ~*~

Okay Putumayo was in the same store like AP but I want to write about it seperately. Honestly I don't have much to write about it because I'm not interested in Putumayo at all. Also nearly nobody was interested. While Angelic Pretty sold a lot of stuff, Putumayo sold nearly nothing. I think the problem is, that Putumayo is mainly a Punk brand and they have a lot of Punk stuff, and many Lolitas are not interested in this style.

Misako Aoki was also in the store for Putumayo, but with no Putumayo customers she was helping the cashier all the time xD. I felt a little bad because directly in front of her, we asked Maki to sign our postcards and then she said "thank you for shopping" and directly went outside with us to take pictures. Originally I wanted to ask Misako to sign the postcard too and to take a picture, but Maki thought we want to leave directly so yeah we directly went outside and I felt weird to come back again when she already said "thank you for shopping, have a nice day etc.". In the evening we came back to the store but Misako Aoki was already gone T_T

The shop itself was pretty small and looked like they only rented the place for one week, altought in the internet you could read that the Pop-up store was in a "real" store called Discover Japan. But there was no professional interior in it and no other items besides AP and Putu.

~*~ AXES FEMME ~*~

Oh my god, Axes Femme is my new favourite brand!! I didn't expected much, because on their website you can read that only half of the shop is Axes Femme, and the other half are items which are created especially for european girls. So I expected too small and too boring clothes. But it was nothing like it!! All the clothes look like Liz Lisa, but with a more classical touch. I was in heaven *__*

But most important: they had my size !!! Unfortunately I gained weight so I became chubby, but they have an L size and this is european L, not japanese L !!! Many clothes have shirring, so while they had several items only in M size, it could fit everyone from XS-XL. So even if you are chubby, you don't have to worry about the sizes, althought I don't think they have anything larger then XL. The only negative point was that their biggest shoe size is 38/39. I was a bit sad about it because all their shoes also looked like Liz Lisa ;__;

Also the best thing was that they had Summer Sale. While their items are usually a bit expensive, nearly everything was 30-70% off! Many dresses cost originally 75€, but with the sale I only paid half of it for three amazing dresses! I hope next year I have more money, so I will never buy at normal shops in Germany again and just wait for their Summer Sale and then go shopping there xD

~*~ BTSSB ~*~

This year I bought nothing in Btssb. Usually I'm not a huge fan of them anyway but this year they had SO many pretty blouses and dresses I really want! But I didn't had money anyway and even if they had sale, their items were still very expensive. My friend Ami tried on a dress which was sooooo beautiful! But it cost 357€ and this was already the price with Summer Sale discount X__X. So in the end she didn't bought it. Also the shop was very empty, actually we were the only customers there!

~*~ PRINCESS CREPE ~*~

Now comes the food part! Like always we went to Princess Crepe. I love this cute small store <3 I ordered a simple crêpe with cake cream and whipped cream. I was really curious what "cake cream" is, and it is not mashed cake xD. It looked and tasted like vanilla pudding.

~*~ HIGUMA ~*~

Higuma is a japanese restaurant at "Rue St. Anne". This is the main street of the japanese part of Paris, where you can find tons of japanese restaurants, shops and cafés (waaay more then at the Immermann-Strasse in Düsseldorf). In this street was also the Pop-up store. I write about this restaurant because it is quite cheap and affordable. For example you can get a menu with Ramen soup + Gyoza for 10,50€. There are also other menus and you always get free tap water!